A Mate For Ben
by Lena WhiteWolf
Summary: When Ben,the battered and abused werewolf meets his mate, McKlary Chadwick, the daughter of an Alpha and a born werewolf, he's in for a bumpy ride with a girl who will have his back.
1. Chapter 1

**_I DO NOT OWN THE MERCY THOMPSON SERIES. ALL RIGHT BELONG TO PATRICA BRIGGS. MCKLARY IS MY OWN CHARACTER, PUT INTO MRS. BRIGGS WORK._**

**McKlary**

"Momma, stop cryin'." I said for the third time as I put my last bag in the bed of the pickup. I slammed the tail gate and the bed cover over the top, and the truck shook.

I took a deep breath just before my father's hand fell upon on my shoulder.

I looked at my daddy and had to fight a smile.

I'm sure the main reason that the pack wasn't here was because he didn't want to have to deal with the jabs he'd get at crying in front of them. Werewolves aren't supposed to cry, especially the only black Alpha in the south.

"Baby girl, you're breakin' our hearts." He said, tears streaming down his face. I'd never seen my daddy cry in front of me, and I was surprisingly calm about the whole thing.

I hugged him around the waist, and buried my face in his shirt.

He was dealing with this the best he could, and I knew that with any luck, I too someday would feel the pain of my little pup leaving my pack, and my protection. I prayed I'd deal with it as well as my parents were.

I extracted myself and turned to my mother who was still blubbering.

Momma was an amazing crier that was for sure. She was trying really hard now to get me to stay, but she seemed to forget that I too, learned the art of tears, learned them from the best, she herself.

I kissed the top of her blond head; she was significantly shorter than I.

I loved her with my whole heart, but it was time for me to go. I know that she loved me with everything in her heart. I was all that was left of her best friend, Tante Birdie. But it was time to move on in my own way, to stand on my own two feet and make my own territory away from my parents.

I pulled back and looked at my parents, the Alpha and his mate.

I smiled; my parents didn't look like they belonged, my mother white as cream and my father dark as coffee, but they were the only ones for each other.

I hopped into the truck turned the key and peeled out of the drive way, blowing a kiss to them as I waved goodbye.

Not just to them, but to the Pack, the heat, the South.

I was on my way to the Tri Cities, in Washington State. The Columbia Basin Pack resided there, and I was to join them. I'd already met the Alpha, Adam, and his mate, Mercy, a walker or shifter in the form of a coyote.

Adam seemed nice enough, though at the time I'd really been there to meet his mate at the request of Bran, the Marrok, or über Alpha. Bran thought that we'd get along well, being that we weren't the typical type of women, or at least in the sense of occupation; we're both car mechanics.

Yes, I, the daughter of a southern belle was a car mechanic.

My mother thought I was doing in spite of her and she was right in the beginning, but the more I did my job, the more I fell in love with it. Maybe it was because so many things in my life were out of control that I had to be able to fix one thing in my life even if it were only cars. All I know was that I enjoyed it, and that was what mattered at the end of the day.

Anyway, Mercy and I did click, and I think that it was Bran's intention to introduce me to Mercy so that I'd have an idea and job if I ever chose to leave my father's pack. Mercy and I talked shop while the boys talked about other things. In the end Mercy, said that if I ever needed a job while I was in the area to give her a call.

It wasn't even a full month before I asked Adam if I could join his pack and asked my father and Bran for permission to leave my old one.

When I arrived at the garage that was where I was to meet Adam and Mercy I wasn't surprised that there were way more cars than there should be.

I looked down at what I was wearing. I had on cut off shorts stained with grease, and a black tee-shirt that I'd painted my friend's nursery in.

I parked next to an SUV and looked in the mirror.

I didn't have on any make up, that wasn't something I worried about often, to the detriment of my mother.

I had smeared a small bit of eyeliner under my eyes. It wasn't that they really needed to get noticed, one was hazel the other green, but the liner sure did make them pop. My multicolored hair was behaving itself, so I was presentable.

I opened my car door and wasn't surprised to find that the scents were mainly werewolf. I cracked my neck, looked around and took a deep breath.

I wanted to pull on the strength of the pack, but until we did the ceremony I was standing nearly alone. Breathe, MacKlary , breathe, you'll be fine. I could only hope.

I knocked on the door, knowing that they all knew that I was here due to the sound of the car, and the door opening. But this wasn't my territory, yet. I wasn't going to step on anyone's toes, I was raised better than that, at least when it came to territory.

Now, verbally, that was a completely different story.

I heard Mercy's voice, but couldn't tell what she said and then she was opening the door, a huge smile on her face. Mercy was taller than me by a small amount. I looked into her brown eyes for a few milliseconds and then dropped my gaze out of respect and acknowledgement that she was of higher rank than me.

"MacKlary, it took you long enough," she said and stepped aside inviting me one.

I stepped in quickly and she threw an arm around my shoulder, literally taking me under her wing. She turned me so that I was looking at the group of people here, all smiling at me. They were all werewolves, and I assumed all pack.

I felt Adam move to my other side, making me the center. My mother's voice rang in my head_, smile and don't look at anyone in particular_. That was just want I did, though my smile wasn't anywhere near my true smile.

"Everyone, meet MacKlary Chadwick," he said rather cheerfully.

I looked up at the group of people, than at Mercy. She laughed.

"No, we don't do this every time someone enters the pack, but, hey, I like you, and this isn't everybody, these are just a few of my friends."

"Alriiight?" I said.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw that my voice seemed to tickle someone. I turned back to look at the man. He was tall, and dominance radiated from him in comparison to some other people I've met. He seemed familiar, but I'd never smelt him before and my nose knew things better than my eyes sometimes.

He smiled, "I'm Warren, Third and," he paused and looked at Adam who seemed to shrug, "Hell might as well as get this outta the way, I'm gay." He said.

That was quite a statement being that it wasn't very common in werewolves, but then coupled with his southern drawl it made it hard to believe. But not impossible. I'd had gay and lesbian friends, and it didn't bother me anymore.

"It's nice ta meet'cha. Texas?" I asked.

I watched as his face transformed from guarded and tough to astonishment. I'm guessing that he'd never been accepted so easily, but I wasn't going to point it out.

He looked at me a few seconds longer and I lowered my eyes a bit, and then he laughed.

"Yes, Texas." He laughed, "Girlie, I think that we're gonna be good friends. And Oklahoma, huh?" he asked.

I smiled my best southern Klary smile and batted my eyes, "Of course, sir. The heart of Broken Arrow." I said, and I couldn't help but catch the smile on the man besides Warren.

I realized than that, this little side conversation wasn't so much as side as it was center stage, but oh well.

The next man stepped forward, he too was tallish, but he wasn't handsome in the normal way. If I had to describe him I'd use words like striking or compelling. He reminded me of-

"I'm Samuel, Bran's eldest son." He said. You could see it then, the subtle resemblance to the Marrok, "It's a pleasure to meet you, MacKlary, my father and Mercy, have told me great things about you." He said and took my hand.

I wish that I'd paid attention, then I'd have thrown up my guards, but I barely go out a muttered, "shee-it!" before I was sucked in.

I saw a happy family, thought it was hard to distinguish whose family it was. There were so many adults about that-Oh, this was a Pack. There were kids running about, having fun, though they weren't all related by blood. I saw Mercy, a child in her lap, and Adam and Samuel. They too had children in their lap and were smiling hugely. They were happy, and that was beautiful.

I sucked in air as the vision faded, and I realized I was on the floor, Samuel's hand still in mine. Mercy had backed up and so had Adam, the rest of the group were staring at me, though one was smirking, like he thought it was funny. People don't realize how pissy magic can make a person, not that that was why I said what I did.

"Wipe that damn smirk off your face, ya sick bastard. I don't know ya but you should learn this real quick. Visions piss me off the majority of the time, and your smiling about my pain ain't funny in the faintest."

He laughed, that is, until a growl ripped through the room.

I looked around to find the source of it to see everyone was looking at me in complete shook that is until I looked at Mercy to see that she was smiling at me.

Something about her look of pride made me realize that that growl came from Black Wolf, me. Yeah, I needed to get myself in check. I took a deep breath, and when I exhaled I was standing up.

I had to say that I didn't love that Tante Birdie had gifted me in her death with this type of magic. I could live without the visions, though I have learned to keep them out.

I was surprised that Adam hadn't reprimanded me yet, my father would have. I turned to him.

"I am sorry Alpha." I said formally. He nodded and then smiled. He looked at Mercy.

"I'm beginning to see why you feel so attached to her. I would have never guessed that her wolf could produce that sound in human for. I didn't even see the wolf in her eyes…"

Mercy rolled her eyes at Adam, "Of course you'd hear that and not what she said. Who was the last person to tell Ben off?"

Warren grinned at her, "Nobody since you, darlin'." He chuckled.

Samuel didn't take his eyes off of me, and like Warren, I figured I'd better get this over with.

"Adam? May I tell them my story? Not because I want to, but because I don't like the way there starin' at me." I told him honestly.

I saw that he was fighting a smile by the time I'd gotten it all out.

"It's up to you, MacKlary ." He said.

I could see the curiosity in everyone's eyes, even Mercy's. Bran had told Adam, and he'd decided that it was for me to tell. I had to respect that.

My gift would change the way people would look at me that I knew. Everyone back home had known since I was little, so they saw it as a part of me, but that didn't mean that I didn't see the way they looked at me when they thought that me and my family weren't looking. My father would have easily killed someone for the way they stared.

I looked at Samuel, hoping that he'd still look at me the way he had earlier once I was finished, hoped he looked at me with friendly eyes instead of mistrust and curiosity. He should understand better than some if he were the son of Bran.

I looked back at the group as a whole.

"How many of you know Charles, Bran's other son?" I asked.

Only Samuel, Mercy, and Adam.

"Well, I've known Charles since I was born… in 1986" I saw Samuel's face change, but I didn't look too hard to see what it was. There was the scent of surprise, but I ignored that too. "My biological parents are Cooper Chadwick and Havilah Joy Chadwick. My father was turned around the time that Empress Matilda was in rule, though he was not in Europe, but rather a son of a tribe leader in Africa, though he still refuses to tell me where in Africa. Honestly I think he doesn't even know."

"And your mother was recently turned, we get the damn picture." said Ben.

I clamped my mouth to hold Black Wolf's growl that tried to escape. I looked him dead in the eye, and though he was of a higher rank than me due to the fact that he was a male, he looked away first.

"But, ya don't get the damn picture, so shut the hell up. Like I was saying. My daddy's been around since then. My mother was turned when a not so friendly soldier attacked her…During the Civil War." I said and took a breath.

"Wait, wait, wait! Your mother was a werewolf before you were born?" Asked a woman I hadn't seen until then.

She was Latin of some sort. She was standing next to a man who was some sort of black and Asian, and a great mix at that. She smiled and moved forward a bit.

"I'm Aurielle, Darryl's mate." She said, putting a hand on the mixed man, making it known that he was her's and I understood. I nodded and looked down.

"Yes, my mother was changed when she had me. Before ya'll start asking questions let me tell you how, which is most likely your question. My mother has never left the south in her whole life, including before becoming a werewolf.

"My mother is the type of woman who makes people fall to their knees, not in fear of her, but in complete awe. My mother is the quintessence of a southern Klary, but ten times as ruthless." I said.

I know that they could hear that I was speaking the truth, and they also heard total and complete adoration that was in my voice.

"She's not above pulling out some elephant tears to get what she wants. But then my mother is also an Alpha, with or without my father.

"My father hadn't liked my mother at first, though the attraction was undeniable. He tried to get away from her and went to Oklahoma. She followed him, and convinced him with those big elephant tears that he loved her." I couldn't help but smile. My father was still a slave to her tears.

"In Oklahoma my mother and father put up roots, and soon they had a nice pack. But my mother's heart wasn't complete. There was one person who knew what my mother needed. A white witch, whose family had great power, and was great friends with my mother, Tante Birdie was her name. She knew my mother better than my mother knew herself in some ways.

"Tante Birdie gave my mother a drink to hold off her Changes and my mother got pregnant. Tante Birdie gave her the drink every month. Tante was in her seventies though she didn't look it. With each month, Tante put her own magic into the drink, to ensure that both I and my mother survived.

"When the last month came, she gave my mother the drink, and when my mother drank it, Tante died. My mother had no idea that it was her magic, in its purest form, which was holding off her Changes, that it was Tante's life source.

"Tante knew though, she told my mother that in a letter that was found later. It broke my momma's heart, losing her friend like that.

"But then I was born. I seemed to be a normal baby, other than the fact that if my father, an Alpha, and I were left alone I'd turn into a wolf. It was Charles who figured out that I was much more than a relatively normal baby. I had small similarities to him. I was able to Change faster, faster than him even, and it caused me nearly no pain at all, but I also didn't have to answer when the moon called, allowing me to go to school and college. But that was as far as it went when it came to me and Changing.

"But when I first met him, I, though I have no recollection of this at all, I apparently looked at him, looked at my father's second, Marquez, smiled and shown the wolf in my eyes." I smiled.

"That's all?" Ben scoffed, with an English accent.

My smile turned into a smirk slightly resembling his own. I looked at him, looked at the dirty jumpsuit in the corner. I winked at him, knowing that my green eye shown blue violet and my hazel a reflective green.

Suddenly he wasn't in the nice suit he'd been wearing, but rather a much too small jumpsuit. Everyone stared at him for a second, then looked at me and back at him and burst out laughing.

"So to sum it up," I said turning my back on Ben, "The drink that Tante Birdie gave my mother, gave me, not just my life, but her power, to an extent. What just happened was that I had a premonition of a kind."

I turned back to the group, Adam behind me now. I was hyper aware that he was blocking the only exit that I knew of. I wasn't quite sure how I felt about that.

Mercy and Samuel seemed deep in thought, but the rest seemed to have made their decision.

"I understand if some of you find that being near me, an abomination of sorts, is unbearable or uncomfortable, don't worry about offending me if you chose to keep contact to a bare minimum. I thank you for attempting to give me a warm welcome, and feel free to leave, I doesn't bother me, though the host or hostess is a different matter."

I felt mighty awkward, as I waited for these people to choose, so I went to the one place no one had ever been able to get to me, my head.

Even in a pack I'd always been able to keep the walls up, thanks to my strange magic. Not even Bran could get in unless I chose. I hadn't always been that was, but then again, I wasn't a naive child anymore, but rather a cynical distrusting contemptuous person.

I thought about my father. He understood me, as much as I let him, and he was the best father I could ever have.

He bought me a dog for my twentieth birthday. I'd always wanted one, wanted animals in general, but living in my parents made it impossible. My mother has her quarks, and dogs were one of them.

Bentley is my dog's name, and though he's a vicious looking pit-bull, was truly the gentlest thing in the world. I'd sent him here before me, and he was waiting at the kennel for me to pick him up. He reminded me of my father, and right now that was all I wanted, to cuddle with my dog in whatever apartment my father and Adam had agreed on and read a good book.

I was thinking when an image smashed into my head, another vision. One that was in action.

Right before the door slammed open as I knew it would, I pulled Adam, who was twice my weight, to me as I used him as leverage and catapulted myself over him. I didn't know who it was that was gonna come through this door, but I knew it was for me.

The door slammed into the room and I yelled a duck, as I twisted out of its way. I couldn't see, smell or hear the person responsible for throwing the door into the shop, but I could sense them.

I knew that there were three of them, and that they were trying to come in from the doorway. That was all I needed to know. Mercy stood beside me now, though I have no idea as to when she moved but, almost at the same time we both surged forward.

My style of fighting was a weird combination of street fighting, Ki Do, and Zanshin. Some of my moves were on the graceful side while others were on the not so elegant side. So when I leaped to the floor, I must have looked ridiculous, that is until I landed on my hands and pushed with all the strength I had to drive me into the air, my eyes on the ceiling.

I stuck my landing, landing in the center of one of the invisible forms, and knocking it down. Once it was on the ground I could understand its body more and snap kicked the thing in what was hopefully the face three times.

Whatever magic it was using to conceal itself flickered with each kick and then faded. I heard a gasp from the group behind me and knew that they could now see what I had been attacking, that was no longer recognizable.

Mercy had handled one of her own though in a fashion I hadn't expected.

I hadn't realized that she'd had her blow torch on the desk until I saw her throw flame in the direction of one of the enemies.

It went up in flames and then, puff, it was gone. That left one more. I stepped off the dead thing, and taking a deep breath while running, forced my hands to half shift, giving me two nice pairs of claws.

It was trying to dip around me and get me from behind, I could sense it, and so I gave it an opening.

It was a dumb enough creature to take the opening and as it did, I lifted up my hands and racked one hand across where its face would be. Its magic didn't waver, not yet.

But I'd caught in by surprise. It stopped, and I swung with my hand still stuck in its face and landed with my feet on its back, just as I hopped I'd manage.

I may be a girl, but I was my father's daughter. I fought with gusto most men don't have, according to my father and his current second, Lee. Lee would know, being that he was a military man, also known as Commander.

I stood on its back for a second, and grabbed its head, leaped off its back the way I'd came, taking its head with me, in a beautiful arch down to the ground. When I hear the snap I needed to, I let go of the head, landing on my feet, its body hitting the ground before it puffed as well. My first one hadn't puffed, yet, but I had a feeling that it was-

"Dammit!" Mercy and I said in time.

She looked at me and I at her and I had to say that I felt kinship toward her. Half of my mouth pulled up in a lopsided mournful smile. I didn't like killing the way most werewolves did. Rabbits and such, that was fun and sustenance, but killing others was a waste.

I shifted my hand back to normal, though aware that my wolf was still shining bright in my eyes.

Adam, who was an Alpha and obviously seething about the fact that his mate was fighting something he couldn't and that he didn't see it coming.

But it wasn't him who started yelling at me, it was a thing with male werewolves. They don't like to let their females fight especially when they can't fight with them. It was British Ben who had a damn hissy fit giving it to both me and Mercy.

"What the hell were you two thinking?" he yelled moving forward, still in the jumpsuit. "One second it's all quite, and I mean no sound and then you two go off to play hero with four healthy males standing right there." Then he turn to me, "You're what? 19?" he yelled in my face. I found it amusing or I would have forced him to shut up, but something about this was hysterical to me, and I couldn't hold back the giggle.

"Uh, Ben 2010-1986 is 24, bud." Said Warren, with a look that said he thought that the man had gone crazy.

"I don't give a bloody damn. It was a damn stupid thing. She's not experienced enough to-" he was cut off by a swift kick in the gut by me. I may be a girl, but I was still a wolf and what he was suggesting was a very dumb thing to do.

I stood there for a second, batted my lashed at him and waited.

He opened his mouth just as Adam finally got himself in control. He looked at Ben, then me. He growled deep in his chest and took a step toward me. I held my ground only because I knew that if I were to move that his wolf would want to chase. I looked at the ground, and before he could do anything, Mercy stepped in front of me, like a pup needing its mother to protect it, and right now, I didn't mind. Too much.

"Don't even try it Adam. She saved your ass, because if I didn't hear them I know for damn sure that neither did you. They could have slit your throat, so don't you try to chew her out." She said and then looked at Ben, "And, you, mister. Where do you get off reprimanding a wolf who just saved your Alpha's ass? If she hadn't moved I wouldn't have felt the magic that was on its way." She said.

He actually looked sorry, though I don't believe that I bought it.

Adam took another breath and then said, in a tight voice, "What I want to know is how she knew that it was coming? She didn't have another vision, not that I noticed and I was in her head." he said.

"No you weren't." I said quietly.

"Yes, I was." he said. I shook my head.

"No one can get into my head unless invited, Alpha. What you saw was basically the mental equivalent of Glamour. I don't do it intentionally, my father can't get into my head either, or Bran. You can find me and such, but can't get fully into my head. It's been like that since I was seventeen." I said, hoping that they wouldn't ask anything about being seventeen that I couldn't give a true answer about.

It was Samuel who asked the question that was on everyone's mind, "What happened when you were seventeen?"

I sighed, and smiled, "What doesn't happen to a seventeen year-old-girl? I discovered it after I got in a serious car crash," I said, and that was true enough that it wasn't an outright lie.

But I felt that I should show them something. So I pulled down the front of my shirt.

Diverging into my cleavage were two wolves that stood out from my butterscotch skin, but under the tattoos were deep scars that were still pretty visible. The art work was the best my friend, Cabel could do to cover up the damage. You only saw one eye of each wolf, and they just happened to coordinate with my own strange wolf eyes.

Everyone stepped closer to see the scars better and I didn't blame them.

"The other car hit me dead on, and a piece of metal sliced into the side of my heart and lungs. A small metal piece sliced into my eye, though didn't go any further and that's how I got my green eye. When it healed it healed green," I shrugged, and then turned around and lifted up my shirt, and went on with the story.

"I spun off the one car and hit something else that shoved a pole through my back rather close to my lower spine. If I were human I would be a paraplegic, that is, if I hadn't died of blood loss." Again I shrugged.

I felt fingers follow the tribal work that hid as much of that scar as possible.

The tribal went all the way to the front of my hips where it then transformed into leaping wolves on both sides. I hopped no one noticed that there was more tattoos above the belt.

I prayed that I'd judged the distance right that none of the rest showed. My tattoos were personal and privet and not even my parents knew about the ones on my back, and I didn't want them to know.

I turned back around and smiled, truly smiled and I know that it shocked the hell out of the other's that I'd smile after such a tale, but it wasn't my worse, so I found that I could live through it.

"I have to say that it was one hell of a ride. My Zanshin trainer, Commander as I call him, had went behind my mommas back and gotten me an old Bentley to work on when I was fifteen, I'd finally finished the thing, had it painted and everything, a slick blue. That had been her maiden voyage," I said and sighed, missing my first car, "That was one hell of a car." I said.

Mercy laughed and I was thankful, but it reminded me of what I had to say earlier.

"I did have a vision, a few seconds before the door flew in." I said. I was about to say more, but my cell phone went off in my pocket. The tone was a wolf howling, and I know I blushed a bit.

"This is important, sorry, I wouldn't have it on but I was expecting a few calls," I said, and ducked my head a bit. I pressed talk and put the phone to my ear, knowing that they could here every word on my end and the other.

"Miss Chadwick?" said a woman's voice.

"This is she." I said trying to tone down my twang.

"This is Luce. We'll I think that your boy's getting a little anxious to see his mama. He's not playing nice with the other kids." She said.

"Has he hurt anyone?" my voice was now filled with worry. I could smell confusion and shock from the wolves in front of me.

"Oh, no Bentley's behaving himself; he's just not playing anymore. I think he just wants to be with you. Is this the first time he's been away from you for any length of time?" she asked.

"Yeah, he's normally always at my side. Is everything ready? I can come get him after I finish one more thing, it won't take too long." I said, looking at Adam, knowing he'd hear the question in my voice though she'd only hear the statement. He nodded, but frowned.

"Yep, he's all ready. I'll tell him you're on your way. See you soon." She said and then I hit disconnect.

I looked at everyone and decided that I'd have a little bit of fun.

"Do any of you know the way to Cat's Daycare? The one that educates the kids about animals and such?" I asked.

They all nodded and It was decided that since I was new in town that I needed escorts, and since Adam had and SUV, they'd all come along, just in case. I drove my truck, following them.

I was sure that they were trying to figure this situation out. Did I have a son? They'd have to find out because asking was apparently rude to them.

I would have asked, but then again I was me. I was sure that Ben would ask, if he was sure that his Alpha wasn't upset with him. I was a bit cruel, I know, but really, I couldn't help it.

When we pulled up the daycare they all hung back, as I walked to the door. A woman behind the main desk saw me coming and opened the door, letting Bentley free. He was a stocky dog, with black fur except for a white star on his chest and white socks.

He came charging out of the building, having seen me, and I bent down and let him knock me over. He pinned me to the ground and licked me from chin to scalp.

I burst into hysterical giggles, sounding vaguely like my mother when she found something quite funny.

After a bit I called stop in Romanian, Commander's mate was from there and had taught me.

Bentley stood frozen over me in mid lick. He wasn't under a spell; this was how he was trained. I told him to get off me and he did. The woman who had opened the door saw besides us now, and the Pack were watching confused.

"He was a good boy, and the kids just loved him. He's the best trained dog I've ever seen. You bring him back anytime." She said as I got up, brushed off the dirt that was sticking to my legs and took the bag that she was holding.

"Thank you, for watching him over night. I know it isn't something you often due, but he wasn't letting me get any packing done, and I don't think he'd have let me leave. So I thought if I sent him a head, he'd be out of my hair and adjust better." I looked down at the big beast, "I think he's adjusting just fine." I pulled my wallet out of my back pocket, it had been my father's and was worn to all hell, but he'd given it to me a long time ago, and I always forgot to buy a new one.

I pulled out my money, and slicked off fivehundred. When it came to Bentley I didn't begrudge him a cent of the money I had to spend on him, and besides rent money, and food, he was the only other thing I spent money on.

"I believe this covers the overnight and picking him up from the airport." I said handing her the money.

She smiled, "Someone already paid your bill. He said his name was Luke Commanderson. Tall, gray eyes, black hair, handsome." She said, but I didn't need the description. I nodded and put the money back in my wallet, and told her thank you.

I didn't say anything to Bentley as I walked back to my truck, my heart conflicted.

Why was life so unfair? That was a question for a different day. The Pack began to back up as me and Bentley moved toward them, and I had to fight a smile. If this had been when I'd first gotten Bentley he'd have reacted the way they thought, but now, Bentley loved everyone.

"He's not gonna do anything to ya. He's a team player." I said.

It was Mercy, Samuel and Warren that came to us first. Bentley sat down and wagged his tail in excitement and let them pet him. Warren bent down so that he could look closer at the dog and was surprised to get a big kiss from Bentley.

Adam smiled and came next with Darryl and Aurielle, leaving Ben. Bentley liked Adam, Darryl and Aurielle enough but he had his eye on Ben.

Bentley likes challenges, and it was written all over Ben that he was a challenge. But there was something around his eyes that told me he was scared. Not in fear of Bentley, but in rejection.

I'm not a soft person the majority of the time, and Ben had pissed me off, but that look around his eyes told me that he was similar to me in a few ways. He used his words as shields, to keep people from wanting to get to know him, to protect himself. I understood that.

I sighed and bent down to Bentley. I whispered in his ear, knowing that no one could hear what I told him, not with the cars that kept passing and the sound of screaming kids from the building behind us.

When I stood up Bentley ran at Ben, but you could tell by his stride it wasn't in attack. Ben stood frozen, like he didn't know what to do, which was also in account to me. I was using an itsy bitsy amount of magic to prevent him from using that werewolf strength of his, for Bentley's protection.

Bentley lopped over to Ben and tackled him. Licking him from head to toe. Bentley looked to be in doggy heaven and Ben looked surprised as hell. And then, he burst out into laughter so robust that it tickled me down to my toes, though I had no idea as to why it affected me that way.

An arm wrapped around my waist, and I looked up to see Warren beside me.

"What'd the lady tell you that made you so upset?" he asked.

I just looked at him.

"Hey, I noticed the way you straightened your back, and not to mention, she didn't take your money. You're a part of the Pack, and that makes me your friend automatically, but what sold me was your acceptance, so accept the fact that your just gonna have to answer my question." He said, smiling.

I rolled my eyes, but he was like a piece of home to me, his drawl felt like a warm summer day and friendship.

"Commander's son, the guy I was telling you about, well his son, who made the transition into a werewolf, well he used to make in front of me because of being a mechanic not that it bothered me. Then this summer he came into my shop and tried to make a pass at me," I said and looked back at Ben and Bentley, "he knew some things that happened in the past and kept saying that he was the only one that would give me the time of day.

"I told him to piss off. He wasn't what I wanted in a mate and he was real big on the whole, being a male werewolf makes you more dominant. He should have remembered that as a teen he challenged me… I sent him to his knees groveling for my mercy. He was lucky that my wolf and I have and understanding, that extra killing is a waste of resources and energy, or she'd have killed him."

"Apparently he's here." I said as I pulled away from Warren and walked to Bentley and Ben. Bentley looked up at me, licked Ben for one more time, and got off the British man. Ben looked up at me too, a smile playing around his lips.

I held out my hand to help him up, and to my surprise he took it.

"Ben I think the dog likes you," said Aurielle in astonishment.

Mercy laughed, "No, I think that dog loves Ben," she said.

Adam had his arms around her, looking content. Samuel was whispering with Warren, though they were both watching me, Bentley and Ben. Darryl was beside Aurielle, his hand on her back.

I suddenly felt very awkward.

"So…Um, who's showing me to my new apartment? I'd really like it if I could wear more appropriate clothing before I met the rest of the pack. This is my driving wear, and not exactly Washington State type of clothing," I said.

Mercy had on jeans and a tee-shirt, with a long sleeve under shirt on as well. Aurielle had on black slacks, and a gray blouse. Everyone was wearing pants, except me. I wasn't cold exactly, but I defiantly realized that this wasn't Oklahoma either.

"That'd be me and Ben," said Warren, "Your taking my old duplex, and Ben lives closer than some." He said.

I nodded, and looked at Adam, well his feet, "Is it alright if we get a jump on that?" I asked.

"I don't see why not. The pack meeting is in a few hours, do you think you'll be done by then?" he asked.

I nodded toward the truck, "That's all I brought. All I need." I said.

He nodded and moved toward his SUV, "You get that done then. Warren, make sure she feels comfortable in the new place." He said.

He opened Mercy's door and she hopped in, waving at me, then Aurielle, Darryl, and Samuel. Finally Adam got in and they were off.

I turned to my truck, not pausing to see if the men were following me. I opened the driver side door and heard the passage open a second later though I didn't look up. I was looking down at Bentley.

"Come on Benni, get you tushy in there, I'm not gonna pick ya up." I told him.

He looked at me with hopeful eyes and then hopped in to the cap. He sat down in the driver's seat and I had to giggle. My dog sure did know how to pull me out of a funk that was for sure.

"Your gonna have to wait till I get in to sit in my lap." I told him.

I looked past Bentley to see that Ben was climbing in to sit beside the dog. He caught me looking and made his expression blank. I rolled my eyes and climbed in, and after a bit of adjusting, we got everyone, including the burly Warren, into the cab.

I turned the key and the truck rumbled to life.

"So which way?" I asked and that began a slew of directions that I took. We ended up in an area with a lot of duplexes and I was glad that my place turned out to be on the outside edge of one of the big buildings.

Before we got anything out of the bed of the truck, Warren decided that I should see the layout first to make sure that I liked it as well as to see where I wanted this or that box placed.

Bentley went in before all of us, and he went ripping down one hallway and up the stairs. He came flying back down and began a small hunt. We stood and watched as he went to the living room area and smelled the small couch that was in great condition.

"Mercy said that you told her you didn't have a couch. She and Adam's daughter picked it out," he said.

As he spoke Bentley hopped up on the couch, walked in a circle and plopped down in a little ball, with enough space for me next to him if I wanted to join him.

"I believe that that couch stays," Ben said with a laugh in his voice.

He was right; Bentley's reaction to the couch had made my decision to keep it.

"Well, let's get this show on the road," I said and headed back outside. I opened the trailer that was attached to my truck hitch and began pulled boxed, cleanly labeled with their destination.

I let the boys get the boxes and opened the bed cover. I pulled the king sized mattress out, and leaned it against the truck as I pulled out the dismembered kitchen table. I leaned the table on the bed pulled out the things I really wanted, my sax, violin, and guitar.

"Why so many ornaments?" Ben asked, but it was easy to smell his curiosity.

"I play." I said.

"Really?" he asked as he picked up my sax case. I fought a growl, he wasn't going to hurt it, I kept telling myself, hoping it was true.

"Since I was four." I told him.

His eyebrows shot up, "You're serious. Are you any good?"

"I'm good enough that I had colleges in Tennessee, California, Chicago, New York, and Oklahoma fighting to give me scholarships to go to their schools to study music." I said. I wasn't boasting, talking about music, my music was personal, so my eyes were set on the ground and my voice was low.

He nodded, and opened his mouth but then shut it, and set out for the apartment, my sax in hand.

It went fast, three people with clear labels really made all the difference in moving. We had everything inside within an hour and a half.

We stood again in the door way, Ben on my left and Warren on my right.

"I can unpack on my own," I said, "But I better go hop in the shower. Can one of you write directions to Adam's house?" I asked heading for the stairs.

"We'll wait." Warren said, and looked at Ben.

"Please, just make it a quick shower." Ben said which earned him and elbow in the ribs from Warren. I rolled my eyes, which seemed to be what he caused me to do often, and I jogged up the stairs, Bentley following hot on my heals.

I pulled open boxes with my cloths trying to figure out what I should wear. Something that said, independent and strong I decided, and without much thought I pulled out the black leather skintight handmade pants. They looked sexy and strong but wearing them was even better. They kept me warm and felt damn near like fleece against my skin. Beauty and comfort.

I pulled out a black half sleeve tee-shirt that had my favorite band on it, Sea Wolf. Yes I loved the irony, I, a wolf wearing the tee-shirt. It was worn frayed in some placed, ripped in others. It was one of my favorites and smelled of Cabel and his tattoo parlor.

I ran to shower, my cloths in hand along with my loofa and lavender soap.

Ten minutes later Bentley and I descended the stairs, my short hair still damp. I'd pulled on my black cowboy boots for good measure before I came down the stair.

Warren and Ben looked up.

I wasn't sure who was more surprised, but that didn't really matter. I wasn't doing this to get anyone; I was doing this to make a statement. It wasn't like I wore this everyday…just once a week.

"My God," Warren whispered.

"What are you wearing?" Ben asked.

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Clothing. You gotta problem?"

He pulled his lips into a tight line and then shook his head, "Not at all."

I nodded as I shoved my wallet into my back pocket, knowing it was a tight fit.

"Well, let's go." I said.

I led the way out; unhitched the trailer, put the bed cover into the trailer and opened the tail gate, Ben and Warren staring after me, by the door.

I whistled high and loud and Bentley came crashing through the two men like they were bowling pins. He hopped up into the bed of the truck and laid in the little nest of blankets up by the cab. He wouldn't move until we arrived at our destination.

"The dog should stay here," Ben said as he and Warren made their way to the truck.

"And you should go to hell, but I don't believe in should's or should not's, so," I shrugged. Warren was lookin at me as if I was insane, and I gave him a sweet smile.

I hopped into the truck and let the boys figure out who sat where. In the end Warren sat in the middle.

When we finally reached Adam and Mercy's house, Warren and I had established that there are a few good bars in town that I was to check out. Ben didn't say a word the entire drive, but that didn't seem to really faze Warren so I didn't mind either.

When we pulled up the house there we cars barked like a rental dealership, some parked straight in rows other more haphazardly, reviling that this was a rather big pack. That was good; I'd just float on by without any notice, hopefully. I wasn't likely to be the only unmated female, meaning yeah I'd be at the bottom of the pack, but I wouldn't be alone at the bottom.

Ben was the first out of the truck, and went directly into the house. He apparently had an attitude, but really that all werewolves. I hopped out, letting Bentley out of the bed of the truck and followed Warren into the house, the pit fallowing me like a little duckling after his momma.

The house was overwhelming in the smell of werewolf, musk and mint. It made me, non-pack want to cringe and run being that I was clearly outnumbered. But you never run from a werewolf. I closed the door, and I kept my eyes on Bentley, who'd made himself comfortable in a ball at me feet.

I could feel the other wolves taking in my sent, learning it. I calmed my animal half who didn't like being in a room of people she didn't know, people who could have been like Them.

It was completely silent, until a certain Englishman opened his big fat trap.

"Adam, I told her to leave the dog. Madea may be a friendly cat, but I don't think she'll appreciate a dog in her house." he said.

Just then the cat in question shot out from behind Adam, who I'd glanced up to see. The poor animal was old, that was easy to tell as it ran. I thought she was going to run out of the door. But instead, the old cat ran at Bentley and pounced on him. Everyone surged forward, anticipating a fight, except me. I stood where I was, letting the wolf in me remain calm, and let that flow toward Bentley.

Hands reached for the cat, but she dodged them all.

"Wait." I barley recognized my own voice. I hate when magic seeps into my words.

But they all stopped, and as I watched, the little fuzz ball of a cat, squashed herself into the center of Bentley's ball, filling in the doughnut hole that was there. Bentley looked at the cat, looked at me, and licked the cat from head to tail and laid his head back down.

"Benni likes cats," I said quietly. And then I looked up to meet Ben's eyes.

He was smiling, like he thought I was funny.

Just then two feet cam racing down the stairs, belonging to a teenage girl, with bright purple hair. She was clad in shorts and a big sweater that must have belonged to a boyfriend or something of the kind, due to how it swallowed her up.

She didn't glance up as she slid past werewolf after werewolf, only looking at Adam with a small smile.

"Sorry." She said and turned back to her mission. She kept moving, "Madea, you're being rude. You know Dad and Mercy don't like it when you interrupt meetings with your search for attention." She said, fallowing the trail the cat had taken to stand in front of me, staring at Bentley and the cat.

"That's new." She said quietly, "When did we get a dog, Dad?" she asked and then looked up to look at me.

I had a small smile going, I could feel it. The wolf in me approved of her, more so, due to the fact that she was utterly comfortable surrounded by wolves. This was Adam's daughter. I bent down, petting Bentley.

"Unless your Dad and Mercy want Bentley, I think this ol' beast is mine. Quite ferocious, I know."

"Awe! You're the new one!" she said, and turned to her father, "You didn't tell me she was a girl. I'd have been more interested in meeting her." she said.

She went and stood beside her father, completing the picture, Mercy, Adam and his daughter.

Adam looked down at his daughter with adoration and love in his eyes, and then back at me.

"MacKlary Chadwick, meet my daughter, Jesse and the rest of the pack. Pack meet, MacKlary , formerly from the Southern Oklahoman Pack, Daughter of Alpha Cooper Chadwick and Havilah Joy Chadwick."

With the introduction, all eyes were on me, assessing me, and where I'd fit in the hierarchy of the pack if I were male. I'll be at the bottom for ever unless I mate with someone, then I'll take their rank.

I looked at Mercy, she was nodding in approval, and that made me glad. I'd have one friend for sure if things were to turn out that I wasn't liked by the rest of the pack.

"What's your job?" a female asked, she smiled, "I'm Betty Joe"

I nodded, "I'm a mechanic, though I have a degree in music theory and creative writing."

That caught their attention. I looked at Adam, and he nodded.

"I'm twenty-four years old, a born werewolf. The story as how I came to be is a rather lengthy one, and I make it a point to tell the story once a day. So to make it simple, I'm a werewolf with an extra amount of magic. There now, that's all out of the way and if ya'll have any other questions not relating to that then feel free to ask."

It was Samuel who stepped forward.

"You said you went to college for a degree in music," I nodded, "What do you play?"

"Sax, Guitar, bass guitar, Flute, Violin, Piano, Drums, and trumpet." I said.

I felt the incredulous stare and the shock, but I ignored it.

Samuel's face was shocked.

"When did you start?"

"When I was four. Actually, it was my fourth birthday exactly. Charles came down for my party and his gift was my first violin. By the end of the visit, he'd gotten me one of each instrument. It turned out that the magic I hold allows me to pick something up quickly. He handed me the violin and showed me how you play and within the hour I was playing my own renditions of Mozart and Beethoven. He wanted to see if it was just the violin or if it worked for other things." I shrugged though it was a clear and great memory of the man I had come to think of as an older brother or uncle.

"Do you know any Celt stuff?" Samuel asked.

I laughed. I felt some of the wolves jump at the sudden sound, but I couldn't contain myself.

"Do you really think your brother wouldn't see to it that I knew my fair share of Celt tunes? That was the first stuff he taught me."

Everyone seemed to calm down, as Samuel and I bantered about the best Celt music.

"My god, Dad, Samuel's met his match in music," Jesse said.

I laughed, by this point she had sat down beside Warren.

But the good mood couldn't continue. It was time for other questions.

"So why did you decide to leave a perfectly fine pack where you had status, even unmated?" asked a woman, leaning on her mate, "I'm Honey."

I sat there for a second, trying to calm the wolf inside me, Black Wolf was fighting the bad memories for me. It was funny how the simplest thing could take me back to that place, take me back to memories I'd done everything I could to bury them deep inside of myself.

"Sure I had status, but I thought it was time to be away from my parents. I like everyone from there well enough; it's just that, they always look at me a little differently. After a while it gets old." I said, giving them all part of the truth. Oh that was why, but there was more to it than just that…

"That's all?" a voice called from a face I couldn't see.

I know my smile was rueful, "Of course that's not all. I'd grown up with kids who were human but had parents that were werewolves. A surprisingly large amount of them survived the Change. Boy's I'd know for years, started to fight, wanting to take me as their mate to "rescue" me from the fate of a mechanic." I shrugged, "I got tired of all the pretenses. I couldn't go out to get ice cream with my best friend, a human man who has werewolf parents, without wolves challenging him, or any other man I stood too close too."

The woman, Honey, looked at me, "Then why didn't you just pick a mate?" she asked, like life was just that simple. If only.

I raised and eye brow up, and saw out of the corner of my eye that Mercy kind of looked appalled.

"Why would I chose a mate out a group of guys I don't even like, to then settle down, in a lower rank than what I get on my own. Without the added hassle of having to pretend to love someone I can't even respect because they don't respect me. I may be from the_ South_, chere," I said, "but I'm not a moron." I said and shook my head.

She probably hadn't even meant to but she really insulted me. Even the thought of what she said stuck in my craw, exactly the wrong way.

"But now you have no rank and no mate." Said a man

Betty Joe looked like she wanted to hit him in the head.

I showed some teeth, just a bit, and saw that Bentley had gotten up, Madea hooked into his back, to stand between me and the man. He'd insulted me on purpose.

"The bottoms not always a bad place to be, and without a mate, I listen directly to the Alpha rather than have to listen to both my alpha and my mate." I said.

I don't know who it was who spoke, but I didn't care, " You'd be lucky if someone wanted to mate with you."

It was a male I knew that, and we all heard, and I saw someone about to defend me, but I just shrugged.

"Pro'lly right."

There was a long pause.

"Why do you say that?" Samuel asked.

I laughed, "Because I'm a jaded, contemptuous, stubborn, blunt, sardonic woman, and know it. Hey, not everyone's cut out to be wife/mate material." I said, smiling because, deep inside, even if my words were light, I knew they were the truth for me. My past had ruined any chance at being a good mate, and maybe that was a good thing.

I kept my smile on for the rest of the night, but I retreated to my own head, the conversation drifting to other things.

I pulled myself out when Mercy told me that since tomorrow was the weekend, she wanted me to get to know the city and if I was feeling up to it I'd start work on Monday. Adam had said the meeting had gone relatively smoothly compared to what he thought and that he was glad things were running smoothly. Then Bentley and I drove back to our new place.

I automatically dialed Cable and cried over the phone to the one person who knew my secret, new why I felt this pain. I don't remember going to sleep, but I did, my wolf soothing me every way she could during the night when I woke in sweats, when I woke up crying or angry. That's what happened, as my wolf told me the next morning, but I don't remember it.

I haven't remembered a night in a long time, but I could trust my wolf. She was doing what she could to help us through this, and that was all I could ask from her.

By Monday I was completely moved into Warren's old home. He along with his lover, Kyle had come over to help me unpack and I found their company enjoyable. It was easy to see in both of their faces that they had that deep burning love, like my mom and dad had, and I was glad of it. Things were easy around them, it didn't take too much thought to stay calm around them, though Warren was big and menacing.

Kyle was a divorce attorney and apparently a very good one. Warren worked for Kyle, though as I understand it, it had not always been that way. But that didn't seem to bother either of them.

Aurielle and Darryl came by as well, and I found that me and Aurielle could be good friends, or really bad enemies. I was hoping for the first. We hadn't done much, they were just checking in on me, but they were kind enough and I even got Darryl to smile a little.

So by Monday I was feeling good in my skin, and I meet Mercy at the garage at her usual time, "early" as she has dubbed the hour, with a happy Bentley.

I got us a good sized breakfast, food always makes things run smother, especially in dealing with werewolves, though Mercy wasn't one, it would still help, if not with her, with me.

"Morning," Mercy grumbled.

I smiled at her, "Not a true morning person, huh?" I said.

She managed a small smile, "Work calls, but other than that, I try to stay in bed until the sun is just a bit higher in the sky." Then she looked at me, "this hour doesn't even faze you does it?" I shook my head, "Why not?"

I shrugged, again, "Da may not originally be form America or anything, but now he's a committed farmer. And I grew up that if the sun is out, even just the smallest hint of its rays, my butt had better be getting up and stating my chores. It's kind of stuck with me."

She looked at my shadow, "Does he go everywhere with you?"

"Of course. Would you leave a baby at home alone?" I asked in mock appall, "Of course not."

She laughed, but then a car pulled up, a customer and it was work time.

Mercy worked rather efficiently, and seemed to have the same idea as to where certain tools go. It made everything much easier. Soon after a few cars pulled up, a man came and took over the front desk for me, introduced to me as Zee, then Fae that had taught Mercy. He was rather grumpy, but almost pleasantly so.

I was given a transmission job, and was slaving away when Mercy called my name from the front.

There was something in her voice that told me, that I wasn't going to like what she was calling my about. I bolted it in place, and then went to see what the fuss was about, Bentley following behind.

I got to the door that goes between the garage and the front and stopped. I could smell him. Luke. I sighed and fought my wolf. When I got her to calm down enough that I wasn't gonna tear him into unrecognizable bits, I continued on, Bentley now on alert.

"Mercy, you rang?" I asked. I brushed a stray hair out of my face, only to realize way to late that I smeared oil on myself.

Mercy, behind the counter, throw me a smudge towel and I quickly wiped at the oil on my face. By not looking at Luke, who was standing in front to the counter, put me in charge.

"Yeah, this guy says he's a friend of your's. He said it was urgent that I call you or I'd have left you to it."

She must have sensed something up with Luke, not that it took too much to see through him to the evil bastard that he was.

"Yeah, I know him, but we sure as hell aren't friends. Never will be as long as I have a say in my life."

I'm a straight shooter.

He made a little sound, and walked toward me, cockily.

"Com'on Princess, don't be like that."

I looked around, there were human witnesses or I would have done something more permanent to him for that comment.

I know that Black Wolf was slipping, she was raging inside of me, wanted to hurt him.

Mercy must have seen it.

"Hey, isn't it your lunch now?"

I looked at her, and then down. I couldn't hide the smile on my face. We'd already had lunch.

"Thanks Mercy. I'll be back in five."

I walked out of the front door, not looking behind me to see if Luke was following.

When we were a good hundred yard form the garage I turned around, looking him dead in the eye. Luke was dark haired, gray eyed.

He wasn't a submissive, but neither was I. He was the first one to back down, but not in the typical fashion. Oh, no, nothing was ever typical for Luke. That's what also made his a pain in the ass.

No he submitted by surprise kissing me. After everything that had happened to me, kissing wasn't an enjoyable act to me. The broken parts of me and Black Wolf agreed that that wasn't something we liked.

So Black Wolf and I stopped it, with a little help from Bentley, who'd bitten the back of Luke's leg and began to drag him off me. I locked my hands around his face, framing it, and I let my wolf's strength fill my muscles as I yanked him off of me. Then I dropped one hand, and clocked him the face, utilizing the small space I was able to make.

He fell on his ass, Bentley still attached. I spit on the ground. He'd bit my lip, it was healing already, but he drew blood.

I looked down at him, he was trying to pull Bentley off, and I opened my mouth the tell Bentley to release him when Luke did the most unbelievable thing imaginable.

He snapped Bentley's neck in a swift twist and unclamped the now slack jaws. Most pit bulls would have put the death grip in Luck when they bit, but I'd trained Bentley not to do that.

There had been no reason to snap his neck, just unhook his jaw and he'd have let go.

I stood there frozen, he'd killed Bentley. When the thought fully completed, I thought my heart was going to shatter with the impact it held. I fell to my knees, my breath coming raggedly if at all. I could feel that my magic was surging, but there was nothing I could do. He was already dead.

Black Wolf howled inside of me, mourning as well. He was all we had left as pack until I was inducted into Adam's completely. That left us alone, unprotected.

I knew I was crying, knew it and didn't care. I knew there were people around me, and I didn't give a rat's ass. I wasn't safe anyway, why should I care if people were around me, smothering me like before, like that night. It was all flooding back to me, the walls that I'd built cracking and tumbling to the ground, and every memory of what happened to me.

A hand came down on my shoulder, and I shuddered. I knew that Adam was trying to help me regain my strength, but I also knew that his attempts were futile. I was shut off. But I couldn't let him waste the energy. It wouldn't be fair to him or the pack.

I opened my eyes, but didn't really see anything but Bentley's too-still body. But I wasn't focused on it. I knew it was there in my line of vision, but I wasn't looking directly at it.

"Don't." I said. My voice slightly above a whisper, though it wouldn't have mattered, he'd hear me.

"I'm gonna help you, MacKlary , just hold on." He said, ignoring me.

And I realized I was just tiered. I wanted to be alone now, as alone as a girl with a wolf in the back of her mind could get, to mourn my pet and get a handle on my feelings again. I was just so tired, everything that ever mattered to me were distant memories and there was nothing I could do about that.

My eyes flashed open completely. I pulled on my strange magic to give the illusion that I was fine, that I didn't need pack magic, because I didn't.

"Adam, Don't," I said, "I'm gonna be fine, so don't waste magic." I said, this time with conviction. He let go of my shoulder, though not saying anything. I was still on my knees. I scooted and picked up my dead dog. I saw someone offer me a hand, but I didn't acknowledge it. I stood up on my own, and took a deep breath.

I turned to Adam and bowed, "Thank you for coming to my aid when I am not yet one of yours. I appreciate it with the whole of my heart, Alpha." I said.

Before he could speak, I turned to the group of werewolves that surrounded me, and too bowed, this time only my head.

"I thank ya'll as well."

But I wasn't done. I turned and looked at Mercy. She wasn't showing much emotion but I could smell her remorse.

I bowed, "I thank you as well, Mercy, and hope I haven't disrupted the garage to badly. If it is okay with you and Adam, I would like to be able to go home, and make arrangements to have Bentley's remains dealt with and sent back to my parents' farm."

I waited as they did what most mated couples did. They conversed without actually talking. I'd witnessed my mom and dad do it enough that I was now able to tell when it was happening. It's almost like there's a glimmer between the two mates, like their bond is manifesting physically though it never gets completely to the physical plane.

"Go home, make your plans, but since this Luke left before I arrived, I'd like Ben to go with you. He may be a pain in the rear, but he's saved my hide a few times, or I'd send Warren, but since we have to track down this Luke, I need both him and Darryl. Go home, MacKlary ." Adam finally said.

I'd have much rather gone home alone, but I'd take what I could get. I nodded to Ben and with one last "thank you Alpha," I headed home, with my dead dog in my lap, and a strange British man beside me.

When we got to the house I couldn't seem to get out of the driver's seat. I sat there, Ben beside me and stared through the glass. I leaned forward and put my head on the wheel, my hands covering the sides of my face allowing me to let a few tears slip through the cracks.

What was I going to do?

I heard a door open and shut, so Ben pro'lly went inside to leave me to my crying. That was good. I could cry by myself. It didn't bother me at all. I've been doing it since I graduated college. Well that or crying to Cabel and Kaelynn.

I was so caught up in my thinking's that I didn't notice that Ben had opened my door, not until he picked me up, shocking me still. He wasn't a very big man, but being a werewolf gave him extra strength and I wasn't exactly up to fighting weight, either. I stopped breathing.

He shook me, forced me to breath.

"Now, Mackie, pick up Bentley." He said. His voice wasn't soft, no, but closer to that than I'd ever heard it. I slid Bentley on my lap, wishing like hell that he wasn't dead though knowing that he was most definitely dead.

"Good, Mackie. Now shut the door."

I growled at him, but closed the door. I don't like orders. He marched past the big oak that took up the majority of my front yard, and stopped at the door. I twisted the handle before he could give me a damn command to do anything.

He marched up the steps, and through to my room. He sat me down on the high bed and gently took Bentley out of my hands. He set him down on his doggy bed by the door, and pulled out his cell phone and handed it to me.

"Hey, don't be looking at me like that." he said and turned to leave, "What do you have in your fridge?" he asked, not turning around to look at me.

**Ben**

"Ummm, I think there's still some Italian marinated chicken breasts, some beef tenderloin stuffed with tomato and mushrooms, and maybe some corn beef . I know that my Red Velvet cake is still in the glass container on the counter. Help yourself." She said.

I nodded, and kept walking.

Why the bloody hell Adam had given me the job of baby-sitter is beyond me. My distaste of the opposite sex isn't really all that true, since me and Mercy get along fine, but that was as far as I wanted to venture into the hearts and minds of females. It probably helps that Mercy is just as sick as I am, just better at hiding it.

But I was under orders, and I liked Adam, so I'd do as he asked with out too much complaint. Besides, she seemed to have good taste in food. So I'd ignore that little scene in the car and gladly eat what she had in the fridge while I sat and watched for the poor bastard who'd killed her dog, ready and waiting to skin him alive.

I walked down the stairs into the kitchen and decided I'd be nice and bring her a piece of cake.

I will readily admit that I had never seen anyone act the way she had in the parking lot of Mercy's garage. I'd watched the whole thing, I'd been the one to call Adam, after trying to get her to get up and not getting through. I should have gone after the dog killing bastard instead, but she was soon to be pack, and pack came first.

The complete and utter heartbreaking expression that fell across her face would most likely be burnt into my memory for the rest of my very long life. It hurt me too, that the dog that liked me was dead. Dogs get along fine with werewolves for the most part. But most dogs don't like me, personally. The fact that that dog had was amazing to me. It hurt to know that he wouldn't be here to pet anymore was rather saddening.

I put the newly cut piece of cake on one of the white ceramic plates that was in the drain board and headed back up the stairs. I could hear that she was talking to a man when I got to stairs. The wolf in me told me to stay where I was and listen, this was going to be important.

**MacKlary**

I used the cell that Ben had given me and instead of immediately calling my father, I called Cabel. He was like my personal therapist though he was a tattoo artist. I've come to find that people in his profession tended to be even better than therapist because of their occupations.

"Glitter and Gore Tattooing, this is Cabe speaking." His voice was an anchor, no it was my safe harbor as it had been for a while now.

"Cabe, it's me." I said, my voice becoming small, as it often did when I spoke to him. He had this ability of making me forget that I was a werewolf, that I was a "tough" mechanic, that I was the daughter of a powerful couple.

With my voice still ringing through the receiver, his voice became anxious, "MacKlary, are you okay? What happened? Are the memories coming back?" he asked.

I stiffed a sniffle, "Luke killed Bentley today. It's happening all over again, isn't it? Helpless." I muttered the last bit, but he still heard me, he may not be a werewolf, but he had fine hearing.

"You're never helpless, girl. Remember that. Hell, if I have to bring my ass up there and knock Luke flat on his ass, you'll never be helpless. I'm sorry about Bentley, but you're gonna be fine. You've lived through worse." He said.

I laughed harshly, "I'm not so sure of that."

That pissed him off, "MacKlary ! Not many people get gang raped, and the majority of those who are, don't _have_ to keep it a secret. Do not think that what you deal with is easy. I should know, or you wouldn't call me bawling because a memory hit. For a smart girl, you don't look at things too clearly sometimes, and there are times it makes me so mad that I could just spit."

I wanted to cry, but instead I let myself turn those emotions into anger.

"Ya know what? I sorry you have to deal with all my bawling shit, Cabe. I'm sorry that you're the one I turned too with my secret. I'm sorry that I thought that you would understand why I couldn't tell anyone besides you and Kaelynn, especially since we've come out. I'm sorry to be such of a god damn bother to you."

He tried to cut in, but I was beyond giving a flying rat's ass.

"So don't worry about it anymore. This is the last time you ever have to hear about the fuckin' rape, about me and my cruel memories, about anything that has shit to do with me. Do you hear me Cable Donahue? Tell anyone about it and I'll deny it, but this is the end."

"Macb-" I shut the phone. I stared at it a second and then opened it and dialed my dad.

"Chadwick." Was all he said.

"Hey, Dad, it's me. I have some bad news." I said.

He growled. That was my dad, "Are you hurt."

"Physically no, but emotionally I'm fried."

"What happened?"

And so I told him about Luke. I was halfway through with my story when Ben walked in with a plate of cake. He handed it to me, his expression almost blank, but something about it told me he'd heard me and Cabe…and that was bad bad bad news. With that knowledge my voice raised up two octaves and sped up with anxiety. It would be me to forget that me and my kind have psychotically good hearing.

When I finished my tale, and dad asked a few more questions, I told him not to worry. That Adam had sent me home with an escort and that I was safe, and that, yes, I would start carrying the two SIGs that Commander had gifted me with on my seventeenth birthday, and also the Smih& Wesson Marques gave me in his will (He'd left the pack and became a lone wolf, but still came around to visit before he died).

And yes, I still had silver ammunition in all of them, and no I didn't need him to send anymore, he'd already given me more than enough when I was leaving, slipping boxes of it into my gun bags.

Finally twenty full minutes after I'd said goodbye, he got off the phone. For a moment I forgot why I'd wanted off the phone so bad and flopped back on the bed.

And then Ben breathed. That's all, but it jogged my brain back to the why. I sat up faster than I should have, but ignored the dizziness. And glared at the infuriating British man.

"That was a private conversation." I said coolly.

He looked a little ashamed, which made me feel a little bit better.

"I don't appreciate eavesdroppers." I said when he said nothing, and then I realized that there wasn't anything I could do to stop him from telling anyone, from telling everyone. And it wasn't like he knew who it was.

I laughed, laughed from my stomach, startling him a bit and he looked at me, questions in his eyes.

"But ya know what? I doesn't even matter." I said.

I got up and went down stairs, leaving the piece of cake where he'd left it. I went into the living room, picked up my violin and tuned it, then I tuned ever thing else that was tune able. Then I went to the kitchen and started on another cake. Their my specialties.

I was in the middle of making my pumpkin spice frosting, when Ben came down from my room. I amply ignored him, and concentrated on my task. When I finished that, I put it in the fridge to cool and began on my apple fluff cake that was my own concoction.

I could feel him watching me, but I paid him no mind.

I was mixing this spice and that spice I the mixer, and went to grab the nutmeg but his hand beet me to it. I don't know how he knew that that was what I was grabbing for, but he took it. Forcing me to have to look at him.

"Can I please of my nutmeg?" I asked.

He looked at the spice in his hand, surprised, and then looked at me, "You're a lot like Mercy, you know that? She bakes cookies and brownies when she's upset or stressed, or angry, or about any other time." He said.

I looked at him warily, "I don't make cookies or brownies, may I please have my spice back?"

He looked at it again, and then at me and finally handed it back to me.

I turned back to my task and with the nutmeg added, it was perfect. I poured the batter into a three separate two inch high, 8 inch diameter pans and place them in the oven that had been ready and waiting.

With those in the oven, I turned to another less enjoyable task, and picked up the phone book that Warren had been kind enough to leave in a drawer and thumbed through it.

"Who are you about to call?" the British ninny asked me.

"A vet clinic." I said and pulled my own cell phone out of the pocket of my jacket and dialed a promising number. I was told cremation rates by a perky woman going by the name of Laurel.

The rated were rather fair, and to be honest the girl was so nice that I knew that Bentley could be in good shape. I told her that his neck was broken, and she'd conveyed how sorry she was and that at least it was a quick way to go. She said to bring him in today if we wanted him by Friday.

I called Adam, "Alpha, am I allowed to take Bentley to be cremated today? If I do, he'll be ready to send back home by Friday." I told him.

"Just take Ben with you. And I am really sorry for your loss MacKlary ." He said and hung up.

I still had time on the cakes so we sat around, him watching me while I refused to look at him.

When the cakes were done I set then in the fridge on and empty rack for just this purpose.

Then I half turned to Ben, "let's go."

I didn't drive this time, Ben did. I had Bentley in my arms. I was newly changed into some jeans a tank top and a jean jacket that hid my gun harness that held both of my SIGs, the jean's covering the gun at my left heal, I was left handed.

Since I wasn't outed as a werewolf here, I wanted to keep it that way. So I had to play my size, and though I was taller than the average girl, I was still thin from everything in the past so I had to let Ben, who was obviously more muscular than me to carry him into the clinic .

Laurel was sitting at the counter and she came running to help Ben with the dog, but he told her to get who ever it was that was going to be taking care of his remains. She obligingly did so and the vet came out from the back.

"What have we here?" he asked.

"We'd like a cremation, I'll come back for the ashes, and can you get a print of his paw?" I asked

He nodded, " I can do that right now. Just hold on." He said taking Bentley with him to the back.

I turned to the front door, ignoring the chatter Laurel and Ben were exchanging.

Was coming here worth it? a little voice asked inside my head. Didn't I come here to escape stuff like this? The voice continued.

No. I didn't come to Washington to escape. I came here to move on, said another little voice. I came here to be independent of my father. I came here to forget, to live in the now as my wolf did, I came here to change.

Well, that worked out about as good as Napoleon trying to take Russia, the first voice said. everything is going just great isn't it.

I turned back around to Laurel and Ben, trying to ignore the voice that was still chatting away in the back of my head.

They were talking about dogs and how they just knew things some times. Ben was talking about how a he'd never really had dogs like him until he met Bentley. I'd guessed as much by the way he behaved and it honestly saddened me that he hadn't know that companionship. I loved the fact that at the end of the day I always had the love of a four legged furred friend.

The main vet came back in and told me that he'd have Bentley and everything I asked for ready but Friday like they'd promised. He also gave me his condolenses.

We were getting in the track when my cell phone went off.

I answered it without looking.

"MacKlary , here." I said trying to hold back an irritated growl that wanted to work it's way up my throat.

"Lottie, it's me."

I smiled and opened the door to my truck. Ben sat in his seat, nearly erect, and I looked at him, and the shrugged, and hopped in and started the truck up.

"Hey, Peggy! How's my nephew?" I asked. Kaelynn Margaret was the only person on the planet who could called me anything but my real name, just as I was the only one to use the strange nick name that made no sense.

"Oh, Orrin's fine, he's doing great, all things concedered." She'd left my adopted brother, Josh. They'd been together two years and suddenly he'd picked up the addiction to heroin. She tried to help him through it, but after a raid at her home for drugs, she left him, she wasn't going to endanger her relationship with her son for Josh and I respected that. Besides, she'd been my college roommate and the one to clean me up after the rape.

"Mom told me that Rosalie found Josh passed out in his car, low pulse. Rushed him to the hospital," I said, "You left him just in time."

She laughed, harshly, which wasn't Peggy's style. Peggy was sweet and kind when I was a raving murodurous bitch.

"Pegs what's wrong?"

"I'm eight months pregnant. Sorry, I'm not my usual self right now." she said.

"You're pregnant?" I asked as I swung a left to head to my duplex. Syn was calmly laing in the back, but Ben was clutching the door handle like he wanted to rip the door off.

"Yep, with twins. Their the other reason I left Josh. Pelase don't tell him. I can't have him involved, I can't go through what I did with Orrin. If I'm gonna be a single parent, I'm gonna do it on my own, with out his interferiance." She said.

"It's not like I talk to him all that much, and I wouldn't tell him even if I talked to him every day. Until he gets clean, which is looking like a big fat never, he's not hearing a word about children in general from me. Mom and Dad washed their hands of his after he was discarged."

I could hear her car radio.

"Where are you?" I asked. I had a nagging feeling.

"At this moment, I'm leaving Iowa. I don't really know where I'm going though…"

I smiled, that sounded like a Kaelynn thing. As long as her son was fed and clothed and in good heath, she didn't care about traditional child rearing.

"Then bring my god-son to Washington State. I could use a good visit from my best friend." I told her honestly.

There were a lot of things I wish I could tell Kaelynn. I wish I could tell her about being a werewolf, about being different. I wish I could tell her about Luke. I wish I could tell her everything.

See, Kaelynn Margret-Casey Ferguson was one of the rare humans that I knew without a second thought, would except the things that were against her laws of science. Between the fact that she was a fiction editor, Kaelynn was so down to Earth that she could calm a wild tiger into submission. Kaelynn did it automatically, except things. Sure she had her moments of doubt like any person, but they were few and far between. She believed that even if she couldn't see it, that didn't mean that it was impossible.

"That sound's tempting, but Havilah told me that I should let you gert settled in before—"

"Mom's just pissed that I left. I'm settled in, just come."

We went back and forth for a while, until I got my way. Kaelynn was bull-headed, and I was determined to have my way.

She would be here by the end of next week.

By the end of the conversation I had reached my duplex.

"Love ya, Pegs…take care of your self and that boy of your's not to mention my unborn nieces or nephews." I told her before hanging up.

I got out of the car and Ben sat there in the cab, looking at the dashboard with a weird look in his eyes. Almost like mistrust.

"Ben get out of the car." I said.

"No."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because…she looks like some one I used ot know."

I looked at him. Then looked at the dash. There taped haphazardly was a photo of me and my adopted sister, Willow. It was Will's seventeenth birthday, and I'd driven her out of town and we had a girls day, and in the photo we were sitting on the dock of the small pond I'd found years previous, sun hats on, and heads together. was he serious?

And then I saw the wolf in his eyes. and then it sparked.

Damn another vision.

This wasn't of the future this was past. And it was Ben's past.

The images on my eyes weren't something I would ever let my brain put into multiple words. Only one came to mind and it was gruesome enough.

Tourtue. Similar to my own…and yet worse…and like with me people stood by and let it happen…including a female who should have protected him... A name came to me. Marisol.

Black Wolf howled deep in me, and then I felt it. It was like she'd shot a line between Ben and I, a line like pure titanium. She spoke to me in words rather than the feelings I usually have, and I was surprised by what she had to say.

We are broken…he too is broken…make whole. We all need…to be whole.

Black Wolf isn't a dumb beast as some would think. Wolves are practical creatures. When they see a solution to a problem that's the answer.

I wasn't like Charles had first thought when I was born. One body, one soul and two spirits. Me and Black wolf, we were the same in everything the only difference being that she used the side of my brain that wasn't hindered by fleeting emotions and such. I was ruled by the past and future, but she, she saw only the current. That is until my past was endangering me in the now.

And my past endangers my now quite a bit.

In my mind the image of what I looked like wolf, lean and black, was fresh, my wolf eyes, stricking blue, and startling green. But in those eyes, Black Wolf inhabited at the moment.

"What did you do?" I asked her, and I could see the fear in her eyes. I could sense the pain I would feel just around the bend.

She looked at me, "What had to be done. What was nessacary. What had already been started."

And then the image was gone, now filled with Ben just as he was before the vision, him pouting in the car. And yet everything was different. It was like I was seeing the world for the first time with the haze of things I didn't want to know pressing down on me.

Before I could say anything, thought I had no idea as to what I was going to say, he spoke.

"What you just saw will stay between us just as what I heard will… and we will not comment on the other thing."

I was about to tell him that that wasn't going to work. Not the first part, but the second part wasn't happeneing. If what happened was what I thought it was we were in some trouble, and if that was true…I didn't know what I was going to do.

I looked in his eyes and saw his wolf flash there, not in challenge, in light of some raw emotion.

"I'll be inside in a moment…I've just had the one thing about me that I hide thrust in my face," I was about to tell him that I was sorry, that I had no control over what I happened to see, but he held up a hand, "not that you purposely looked there. I think we could both use a few minutes to get our heads on straight…The Black One is showing…"

That was what Charles, Bran and Commander called me when I went wolf. The Black One. That's what Charles had called me since he first met me, there aren't many females in our spices and they usually are browns, reds, grays and a few blonds. There aren't that many black females. I'd been Charles first. And now he was mated and married to Anna, a black female Omega.

But not even my dad called me that. so how would this man know to call her that.

"Mackie…please I need this moment."

I nodded and went to the door, stopping only to look back at him again, at the hidden desperation on his face…was that what I'd looked like?

**Ben**

What she saw wasn't exactly do to whatever magic she had…I'd known what was going on and was trying to shield her from the brunt of it all. There were things she didn't need to see to understand. Just as I didn't need a gift or curse like she had to imagine what happened to her.

I am losing it. Everything I have done to keep people out of my face out of my past…and I'd let her in.

Just as I'd let Mercy and Adam in…only more so.

I knew what was going on between our wolves when we were in the kitchen. Out of thirteen different spices, I pick up the one she wanted.

I've barley cooked a day in my life and can't tell you the difference between ground sage and ground parsley, but I somehow manage to know exactly that what I'd held in my hand was Nutmeg and that she was going to put one and a half teaspoons of it into the frosting she was making…yeah that's not me.

Something about her mad was amazing, the fury she held beneath the surface promised excitement. And her beauty was something I couldn't put an exact science to but it worked. Her darker completion with her strong yet soft features made a man was to—I'm not that type of guy.

What was it that Mercy had said so long ago. I hate women. I don't, but I don't trust them…and yet I trust MacKlary . Not to mention the wolf in me was caught up in hers. He didn't pick so much as fall into her wolf. When he had first seen the wolf in her…it was like she called to him.

My wolf knew that she was more dominate than him and yet didn't care. He loved the wildness in her, it matched his wildness, thought he may not be the most dominate out there, he was wild and untamed.

What was I to do? She wasn't like Marisol, that I knew, but we were both really really really fucked up. I banged my head on the dash board.

She was so so so unlike anything safe, anything that make me feel normal…

You don't want normal, a part of my brain whispered. You want someone who's strong and does the things that have to be done. You want a mate that can take care of herself if the need should arise, yet bares her soul to you as no one else would.

"Ben, why are you doing this…"I muttered to myself.

And like I had called her up, Mercy called my cell.

"Ben what's up? I felt something from your side of the lines." That's what she called the pack bonds.

If I could tell anyone of what just happened, it would be Mercy. Sure she'd probably tell Adam and Warren, but I could deal with that.

"Not a good day."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"and what makes it a bad day other than the fact that Bentley was killed, how?"

I listened for people in the background, and all I got was relative silence. She must be at the garage.

"You are going to laugh or be too shocked to speak…she knows my past, had a vision…and then my wolf and her wolf…hit it off to say the least."

Mercy was quite for a second, "Hit it off how, like punches—"

"No it's apparently been decided that her wolf…and my wolf are in cahoots." I said sounding like my grandfather.

Mercy surprised me, she didn't laugh and she wasn't too slient , and when she spoke it was clearly and calmly with a touch of humor but not in the way I thought, "That's what I'd thought would happen when Adam sent you with her. She's a pretty amazing woman, strong, and stubborn, hard working."

"I wonder who that sounds like." I muttered.

"You don't sound all that happy." she said, though she was obviously amused.

"This is not funny Mercy." I said my voice close to stone.

"I can't wait to tell Warren that you really are straight. He was looking at some of his reject piles for you—"

Before I could tell her that if I had been gay I was worth more than Warren's seconds, I heard MacKlary. It wasn't a scream per say but it was close enough that I was out of the truck and up the front steps in seconds and hanging up on Mercy.

MacKlary was up against the wall, a dark haired man, Luke, was pressed up against her, caressing her face. The human man in me wanted to attack.

And so did my wolf. This man had killed Bentley and now he touched what was ours. He put fear in her eyes…he hurt the one that was ours.

"MacKlary?" my voice was like…like Adam's was when he and Samuel had been competing for Mercy, though Samuel's wolf's heart hadn't been in it and enjoyed taunting Adam more than anything else.

She looked up, the fear in her eyes was discerning. After seeing her fight the invisible things in the garage, seeing her so in control and fierce, I didn't like seeing this fear.

"Ben…" she whispered my name like a prayer and that's when I knew I had to grow a set. If I would lay my life on the line for Mercy, and Adam and occasionally Warren, I could damn well do it for the woman my wolf had decided on. He'd never steered me wrong before.

I was beside them, fighting the urge to hit Luke, "Let go and back away from my mate. Now." my voice was ice.

Luke looked at me, "She's not your mate. She's mine. She will always be mine."

He didn't see my fist— not till it was hitting his face knocking him back three yards. And then I was between MacKlary and this man.

I growled deep in my chest, "She is not your's. How could she be your's and yet you kill a creature she loves with her whole heart? She is not your's."

He growled back and let the wolf show in his eyes.

"Mackie, take the phone out of my back pocket. Press 3 and you'll get Mercy and Adam's place. It doesn't matter who answers the phone, just tell them I have the dog killer."

"I-I-I can't…" she said.

I didn't take my eyes off of the man, but backed up until I could feel her. I would have gladly handed her the phone, but I needed my hand and though it was only seconds, that all it took for a werewolf to move.

"Mackie-girl, you are going to do this. You have to do this."

I felt her let go of a breath, and then her hands were patting my arse looking for the phone.

And then her hand was gone and she was calling. I didn't listen to her, my focuse was completely on this man.

"Their coming."

I nodded.

"Klary you know you love me, that you're mine. He doesn't really want you, but I do." Luke said.

I heard her low growl, "Do not call me Klary."

"I love you,"

I cut him off, "Mac, wait for the pack outside."

"No." was her response, "I can't leave."

"Then why don't you get something to drink. You sound a little parched."

Her hand seemed to absently fall to the middle of my back, "No, I'm fine." She said with a conviction that was undeniable. I could smell her sudden fury and it didn't take much to guess that her wolf was very close.

"What are you doing here?" I asked luke.

"Coming for what's mine."

MacKlary growled deep in her chest and her hand fisted on my back.

"Do not call me your's. I am never yours."

He looked at her, "But are you his?" there was contempt in his voice.

I didn't know what I thought she was going to say, didn't know what I wanted her to say.

**MacKlary**

Black Wolf and I were in charge together. She was the part of me that gave me the strength to stand behind Ben, it was her that kept the memories and terror back. But I was the one in control of the words.

For the most part.

I'd been surprised when Ben had burst in, glad of it, because my fear was getting the best of me. I should have heard or smelled Luke. I should have been paying attention. The fact that he'd gotten me from behind didn't help me. no matter how dominate that I was, I was still a woman.

So I was trying to fight my inner demonds and not give too much away, so that's why I didn't notice my own hand on Ben's back until it fisted in his shirt. I was so caught up in that, that it was Black Wolf who was listening to Luke.

And it was her that answered, not I.

"He is mine. I am his. I will never be anyother's." she said.

It smelled like gods honest truth, and it jolted me. she was so sure, so sure that it was frightening.

He is ours, we keep what it ours, and keep it well. she thought.

I didn't remind her of Bentley.

And just then Mercy and Adam came in, warren and Daryl behing them.

And just as they entured Ben took his eyes off of Luke to look at the door, and that was all it took. Luke turned in less than half a second, and jumped out of the smallesh window up aways. He was gone before Adam could get out a word.

Speed was one of the few things Luke had going for him as a wolf. Speed and agility was a give in, but he had a bit of extra, like Commander.

And with him gone, and Black Wolf still so close, rage ensued. Rage at the fear I'd felt, rage at my own weakness, rage at the taste of sated bloodlust, rage at everything.

And with the rage came the Change. I couldn't tell if it was Black Wolf or me, we were seamless in this form, one blending to the other. I'd removed my hand from Ben just as I backed up. One second I'm human, and then the next I'm a big black wolf. It took no thought or effort, and since I was so angry, I didn't feel the little pain I did have.

There was no way a human could mistake me for a dog, I stood taller than the average great Dane measured to my withers, or neck. The average being about 34 inches. I stood at about three and a half feet tall to my withers.

My change came so fast that no one seemed to have time to brace themselves, not to mention get ready to have a huge wolf in their face. Not even Samuel, who was behind Warren and Daryl seemed to comprehend how I was able to change so fast, and he was old and related ot Charles.

Ben didn't move, whether out of fear or something else I couldn't say. Adam and Mercy were taking in my large size, as well as Samuel, but Warren and Daryl took the offencive.

It must have had to do with the how quick I changed, because I wouldn't take Darly and Warren to be completely dense if at all. And I know I surprised the hell out of them in response.

When I'd changed I'd backed up into the clear corner of the room.

Daryl came to stand before me, "MacKlary," he said it almost like a reproof.

My response: bare teeth, lower head and growl deep in my throat.

"Down," he said sounding irritated.

Me: snaps jaws and glares.

Warren from the door, "MacKlary, down," his pull was sharper than Daryl…interesting, he wasn't really third, he was a second.

I was about to fly out the same window Luke had left, to chase after him, to rip his throat out, to make him bleed. Screw wolf politics, I wanted him dead, I didn't care if I should be acting like these males were more dominate than me, they weren't. I didn't have to pretend back in Oklahoma, or with Bran and Charles because they were legitamently more dominate and Charles didn't play dominace games with me.

I was about to do that, make him bleed when Mercy stood infront of me like she could read my mind. But it wasn't Mercy that stopped me from it all, I would have easily pushed her over and made my way.

Ben grabbed my tail, not tightly, but gently…and he made the need to kill subside.

Need, we need him to keep us from getting ourself killed, Black Wolf said since she had subsided in her need for blood, but now wanted something differently entirely.

I was a bit dumbfounded in the fact that she was subsiding at all, so lost in surprise that I almost didn't pay attention to what was going on around me.

"Shhhhh, hush, Mackie. No blood tonight, though I wish there were," Ben said to me.

Mercy realized her mistake and took a step back, Adam now behind her looking like he wanted to punish me but I didn't do anything wrong.

"How do you calm her when neither I nor Warren could do so?" Daryl asked Ben as I settled down to put my head lower than Adam's. I didn't want to find out who was more dominant, cause if I did the only other place for me would be Montana. I settled directly in front of Ben, putting him away from Daryl, I wasn't sure how much Daryl like Ben. I knew from Mercy that Warren and Ben almost died together and that had made them closer, but Daryl seemed the type to hold grudges.

This mating thing was new to me, but the wolf in me was taking action and wasn't gonna let him get hurt. Black Wolf wouldn't stand to see it happen.

Ben let go of my tail and sat beside me to put his hand in my coat. Adam's eyes widened. I knew then that my dad had told him a bit about me. Not about my past being that he didn't know about the rape. But it was a well known thing back home that I didn't like to be touched. My own father didn't touch me in wolf form. It wasn't so much me as it was Black Wolf. She hadn't ever like to be touched, because when I was smaller, I'd see visions when people touched me in this form and it bothered that it left us helpless. She didn't like feeling that way in this form, well any really, but human she could deal with it better.

Ben looked at Daryl, and warren, and then looked at me. the words were in his eyes, did we want it out in the open?

Black Wolf moved before I could. She twisted and nuzzled with our cold nose before licking him.

The human in me was embarrassed beyond compare.

The wolf in me wanted to do it again.

He laughed, kinda shakily, but a laugh none the less.

"She is mine." He said when he stopped laughing.

Mercy huffed, "That was what I was trying to tell you before we left." She was still looking at me but it was clearly Adam she was taling to.

Warren didn't seem too conserened with the fact that I weas more domninat or by the fact that Ben and I were mated, but more about my size.

"She's not that big as a human, not even mucular lookin', I didn't realize she was gonna be that big as a wolf. And I think she's actually jet black, not a dark brown or deep gray, but actually black."

I wagged my tail.

Adam looked at Ben and then at me, "You're really his?"

I shifted back, it took about a minute compared to my fly shift. And when I shift back, I think about an outfit in my closet or drawr and then poof, I'm wareing cloths. Charles was the one to suggest I try a little bit before I turned ten since my magic liked clothing in general , and I still owed him for making it possible for me to cover myself during puberty. That would have been a bitch.

So I thought about pj's, and was surprised that it was Black Wolf who picked out a pare in the back of my mind. Silk/Satan blend touched my skin and I knew she was really really having too much fun. I added my long robe to the list and puff, there it was before anyone could really get a look at me. I pulled the lapels closed and cluched them there.

"Mackie, was the really a good idea?" Ben said, his hand on the small of my back.

I answered Adam, "His wolf appeals to mine…" I said.

Syn, sensing the fact that I felt…stripped of everything I had once known, came to stand before me and Ben. She licked the hnad the wasn't cluching my lapels. I rubbed her head.

"Syn, up stairs." I told her and didn't have to watch as she moved past me and up the stairs. if tempers were going to rage, she didn't need to get in the way.

We ran through what happened, skipping the car scene and such and going straight for the meat of the story.

As we talked we all seemed to calm down, Adam, and Samuel remaining the only two in guard mode. Ben, Mercy, Warren and I were in the couch. Mercy and Warren sat like bookends on the arm rests while Ben and I sat in the middle.

He couldn't seem to stop touching me but then I could also smell how close his wolf was to the surface. And I seemed to be captured as well. I kept thinking about his nearly white blond hair in between my fingers, and his silky blue eyes looking into mine. I kept putting my hand on his, my head on his shoulder.

We'd finished our tale and we both seemed to take a deep breath.

"She can't stay here," Warren told his alpha.

"I know that. She'll just have to stay with Ben. And Syn—"

She howled like she heard us talking about her, but there was something about her howl. I was upstairs and in our room, Ben right behind me, in seconds.

She was sitting on the bed, frazzled, and then I had the sinking feeling of magic other than I know.

The invisible attakers.

Before I knew what I was doing I was snapping invisible necks, and ripping limbs off invable bodys, Ben fighting with me, hitting and bashing in heads, and then soon my room was crouded by Mercy, Adam and Warren.

The attack ended quickly and that was a blessing. By the end of it, Ben, Mercy and I had done all the work, Warren had removed Syn and Adam watched, trying to figure out was to do. I knew it grated his nerves like no other to sit back in a fight. But there wasn't anything else he could do.

"We need to get you to Ben's." Adam said.

"I just want to know what the hell these things are and why their after my MacKlary?" Ben's voice was tight, like he could hardly keep in his rage. Looking in his eyes, they were no longer blue, but rather, the deep amber that belonged to his wolfskin.

I didn't think, just acted, and reached out, at the same moment he rached for me. He clasped my hand gently.

"That is just so…odd."

It was Darryl who spoke from his position in the door way. His voice holding something like wonderment. Samuel, who stood a bit behind him looked irritated.

"What is odd?" he asked Darryl. It didn't take much for me to guess, but I was fighting my temper as it was, and I didn't want to set it on fire so soon afterward.

"Him…touching anyone. Him claiming anyone."

Ben growled deep in his chest, the wolf wanting to peak out even further. It was a deep, rumbling sound, a sound I was used to hearing out of my own mouth, but it seemed odd coming from him.

Darryl puffed his chest up and began to growl back.

I put my hand square on Ben's chest, could feel the growl go through his body. He was looking past me, at Darryl, and there was no mistaking the challenge in his eyes. I stepped further into his path.

"Ben…Ben, let it go."

He looked at me, and he began to calm.

"ARE YOU CHALLENGING ME?" Darryl rumbled, and it took everything I had not to punch him in the balls.

"Darryl, not helping." Mercy muttered.

"Ben, baby, look at me." I felt like I was calling him form a world away. He saw trying to walk forward, and I was holding him back. He didn't even seem to notice.

"BEN." I yelled it, let it become a growl.

That got his attention, his eyes began to slip back and forth between wolf and human.

"ARE YOU-" Darryl began.

I turned and cut him off by punching him in the jewels like I'd been thinking. I didn't give a rats ass if he was high in pack. He was fucking with my mate, and not being all that helpful.

"Shut your damn mouth, Darryl, before I'm forced to send you home to Aurielle without a voice box." I gritted out before turning back to Ben. He was pissed, but I held on to him.

"Ben, I just earn myself an honest ass whipping, don't make it be in vain. I don't like taking ass whippings, so calm down, hun." My voice was low and calm and I prayed that he listened.

He shuttered slightly, and let out a breath. And turned and looked at me…with blue eyes.

I sighed slightly in release. And then waited for Darryl's rein to set in. I would take this beating, not happily, but with the understanding that I would have to take this, for my mate. It was a new concept, this mate thing, but I understood it. I knew that I was more dominating than Ben. I knew that, and didn't care. But I knew that I could take this beating easier, I had the will to take it and not take it personal.

"No."

The words came not from Ben, not from my own lips.

It came from Samuel's mouth.

He had Darryl's fist in his hand, looking at him with a murderous expression. Mercy wasn't too far behind him, looking at Darryl with saddens.

"Darryl, you are letting this one go. You will not retaliate on either Ben or MacKlary." Adam spoke from his position further in the room.

Darryl's wolf was there in his eyes, demanding to have the respect he'd earned.

"No, I understand this, Adam. I can take whatever he dishes out at me." I told him in a low voice and I felt Ben grab for me.

"Mac-"

"You don't have to protect me from this part of a pack. At this point I am still fair game anyway. I'm not pack. If he wanted to, he could kill me. I knew all of this when I acted, and it didn't stop me. I know how to fight, and I know when I am wrong. And I know when I need to lay down and take what I deserve."

Ben's hold tightened, "Mac, I can't just sit back,"

"You have to, hun. This is the one thing I know. I know how to fight." He looked me straight in the eyes, unidentified emotions rolling in their depths.

"Mackie-"

I kissed him quickly, mainly just to shut him up.

"I am no different here than any other. I am my father's daughter to be treated like everyone else."

Adam seemed to disagree but who was he to tell me whether to take a beating or not.

"Samuel let him go." He said, voice gruff.

Samuel wasn't in agreement, that was easy to tell. But he did as Adam commanded, not out of need but out of repesct. I was ready for the blow before it ever reached me, and I took it like a man.

This is what we do to protect those that our ours, Black Wolf consold me. She wanted to fight back, but knew that it would only make this harder. All she cared about right now was protecting Ben.

Darryl hit me in the side, and I rolled with it, landing on my knees. I took a deep breath, assessing what was going. Darryl took a swipe at me from the side, would have bruised my face.

It was a swipe that reminded me all too well of that night. i didn't think, neither did Black Wolf. My body did the one thing my heart and mind riled against. I cowed. But not only did I cow down, the sound of pure agaony that escaped my own mouth was enough to make me want to run from this place and never return. It was neither Black Wolf or I who had released that sound, but my body betraying me.

The sound made Darryl take pause. And as such, Samuel snatched Darryl up, and then Ben was there scooping me up and removing me from the room. He was growling at me, his words there, but gritted out.

He took me to my kitchen, where he sat down on the tile, me in his lap, "I swear to god almighty, that if he hurt you, damn be the consequences, I will have to hurt him. How at the moment I am not quite sure, but fuck-"

"It was only a memory. Only a memory, I promise. He didn't hurt me." I whispered, cutting him off. he kissed the top of my head, softly.

"Ben, take her to your place." It was Warren who spoke.

Ben nodded and tried to pick me up, but I stood up and took his hand. I wasn't too broken to walk myself. I could see that the urge to scoop me up and take me where he wished was there in his eyes. But he didn't and that I appreciated. I did n't have ot whistle for Syn, she was already standing in wait, seeming to have known that leaving this place was coing sooner rather than later.


	2. Chapter 2

******_I DO NOT OWN THE MERCY THOMPSON SERIES. ALL RIGHT BELONG TO PATRICA BRIGGS. MCKLARY IS MY OWN CHARACTER, PUT INTO MRS. BRIGGS WORK._**

**Ben**

After loading MacKlary into her truck, I took the position of driver seeing as she didn't know her way around town yet. MacKlary, who was snuggled into the side of me, unknowingly I believe, absently run her fingers over my pant leg. We said nothing, I had no words to say other than that I wanted to kill Lucas, and give Darryl a good one for knocking her around.

She seemed, introspective, which at the moment, I figured was only to be expected, and though I wanted her to talk, I recognized the necessity of silence for her.

I didn't realize I was anxious until I pulled into the drive way of my modest home. Her expression didn't change to one of disgust as she looked at the pale green two story house, with it's one bay window, and moderate front yard, with the little lilac bush standing in as a hedge… and then I remembered the only people to have ever seen my place were Adam, Warren, and Kyle…Not even Mercy had ever seen my place.

I opened my mouth to excuse the place, hell, even before she got a look at the inside, but she spoke before I could manage it.

"It's really comfortable, Ben." She said it absently as she was busy opening her door and heading up the path; I hurried to catch up with her, and unlocked the door, swinging it all the way open for her.

The entryway was just a typical entryway, with shinny hooks to hang up your coat and an area for shoes and whatnot. It wasn't spectacular, or particularly clean either, but I lived in my house. It wasn't a show piece, where I entertained guests, but rather a place that was my safe haven where it didn't matter if I was dominate or submissive, or happy or sad. It was a space all my own.

And here MacKlary, the woman that is my mate, looking around this place, this safe haven, with something like awe on her face. Awe or appreciation.

"What?" I asked.

She smiled, her bathrobe a little disheveled from the fight and car ride, " You just keep surprising me."

I took that for the complement I knew it to be, but I still couldn't understand what I had done right. I puzzled over it for a while as I showed her through my home.

While I showed her the main bathroom, I slid into my room and grabbed the few items of clothing I owned that I thought might fit her.

She was sitting on the closed toilet lid, her hands to her face.

"What's…wrong Mac?" I asked, my voice gental, soothing, in a way I never thought it would be.

She didn't look up at me, her short-ish hair still long enough to conceal her face, and even in the florescent light, I could make out the many different hues of browns, golds, and brilliant reds.

"Nothing's wrong Ben…for once in my life, I don't feel wrong, like I'm lying to everybody, or like I can't let my guard down." She looked at me then, her piercing hazel and green eyes locking with mine, "This place is a safe haven, even more so than the duplex we just left. This feels…as silly as it may sound, this is the closest I've ever felt to coming home…not even my own parents house felt like this…even before."

I felt myself smiling, and I wanted to say something…sweet, but not being accustom to the urge I didn't know what to say, so I let the moment pass, with a smile on my face. She didn't seem upset by the fact that I didn't know what to say, and I was thankful when I handed her the clothes.

"I know it's not much, but…"

She shook her head, "It'll do and that's more than enough hun."

I excused myself from the bathroom and went into the kitchen. I wasn't surprised when I heard the water begin to run, I had a feeling a shower was due. I looked at the time on the stove and decided it was best to get dinner.

As I said, I am not a cook. There weren't even basic groceries in my cabinets, as pethatic as I was beginning to believe after seeing MacKlary's kitchen. But I was a bachelor, and had been for some time, so I called my favorite Italian place and put in a few orders, things I hoped she'd like, and had it delivered.

The one thing I did have in my house that I could make was tea. I am an Englishman, and tea was the one thing I know how to do proper. So I set myself to that task in hopes of keeping not only the man, but the wolf inside me from thinking about the fact that my mate was in the next room… without any clothing on. I thought I was doing well…until I spilled an entire cup of tea. I set myself to the task once again, praying to actually accomplish the goal.

* * *

**MacKlary**

I heard a sudden clank from the other room, and was out of the shower, one of the pale blue towels Ben had shown me wrapped around myself, and in the next room faster than even I thought possible.

When I'd hopped out of that shower it had nothing to do with my safety or well being. My main concern had been Ben, and that surprised me. After years of living in some level of slight fear for self, this sudden increase of fear for another, a single other human being, was jarring. But in that moment I welcomed it.

I stood with my hair dripping down my back, scanning the room, to find Ben, crouched down looking up at me, with surprise all over his face. In his hand, a broken tea cup lay cradled in his palm.

"Thank God, it was only a tea cup." I told myself under my breath. I know I sagged into the towel, letting the anxiety roll of my back, and took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, Mackie, I wasn't trying to surprise you." Ben said, still crouched.

I laughed, "Hun, that wasn't the problem. I was just worried about you."

"Me?"

I nodded, "This mate thing is gonna take some getting used to…"

"I'm sorry,"

"Stop apologizing, Ben, it's not your fault, and as much as it's gonna take getting used to, I'm happier for it…I'm not worried about myself anymore, I'm worried about you. This bond is giving me more of my strength back, it makes me lighter. It's good for me. And I hope it's good for you." I said in a burst of complete honesty.

He looked shocked, as to what it was that I had said that caused that emotion was beyond me.

"MacKlary, don't ever worry about this bond being good for me. I stood up to Darryl for the first time today, I and my wolf were no longer weak, but rather ready to protect you at any moment. I never thought myself or my wolf as less dominate than any other man I'd met, and your showing me that sometimes theres a key to what triggers

dominance."

I had to smile to myself, here we both were, expressing feelings I knew neither one of us was used to expressing, and it came so easy, came like a soft rain.

Ben was smiling at me, and then a look of mischievousness, mixed with a ting of fear crossed his face.

"And Mackie?"

I nodded.

"Go put some clothes on, before I can't stop myself."

That made me blush. **ME. BLUSH.**

I took off, out of the room, to put some clothes on. Black Wolf wanted me to stay; she was more than thrilled by the aspect. The human in me wasn't scared of the prospect, but I was raised better than to fu- I mean mate on the first date…if this was a date. I didn't give myself time to try convince myself of otherwise.

I pulled on the tee-shirt he'd provided, it smelling only of him and this house. I breathed it in deeply, welcoming the scent that would someday be the scent of home, and then pulled on the rest of the clothes he'd given me.

When I came back out of the bathroom, he'd made tea, and Italian, two things I loved. I could smell that the tea was Chamomile and that there was Lasagna in one of the many containers of food.

"I can't cook worth a damn, but my fingers can dial pretty efficiently. I hope you like Italian." Ben said, looking out the window into his now dim backyard. I could tell he was worried, could smell it on him, but I didn't know what about, and I didn't want to pry.

"I love Italian. Thank you. For more than just the food, ya know. The clothes, letting me stay here, and everything." I said all of this, while heading to the island that was perpendicular from his location. I didn't want to over crowd him, but I wanted to be close. This was going to be a major adjustment to who I was as a werewolf, I was the loner most of the time, but now, I honestly needed to be around someone.

"I wouldn't have you anywhere else…Well, actually maybe at Adams, but I'd want to stay there with you. Not that Adam isn't perfectly capable of taking care of you, its just that…that…"

"She's yours."

We both jumped at Adam's voice. He wasn't known for being that quite, but then again, I was pretty caught up in Ben that I had all of my senses focused on the man.

Ben didn't seem to mind that Adam had just walked into his home, but then again he was Alpha and Ben's friend.

"Yeah, that's it."

Adam smiled a big smile, like he completely understands.

"When Mercy was in Aspen Creek, wandering around, and I was stuck as wolf in that hotel room there, I wanted to tear the walls down, just because I wanted her there. I knew full well where we were, I knew that she was safe, but if there was protecting that needed to happen…well, that was my job. At the time, she wouldn't have seen it that way, back when she swore I claimed her just to protect her from the other wolves, but she was mine. Mine to take care of, mine to watch out for, just plain mine."

I couldn't imagine Mercy without Adam, without that adoring twinkle in her eye when she thought about him. Without that smile on her lips when she said his name.

"Ben, MacKlary. We need to Induct you into the pack MacKlary, so I have full claims over you and your protection. At this point my hands are slightly tied about what I can do to Commanderson, thought he is trespassing, I cannot do anything about the killing of Bentley until you are one of ours."

I nodded.

"And Ben, the two of you need to finish the mate bound. You both need to get a hold on whatever gift or gifts you're going to get from this, and soon. Whatever these things are that keep attacking are a problem, one we need abolished, and Bran has a feeling that that won't happen until the two of you are fully linked. I suggest you do both, the induction into the pack and the finishing of the mate bond when the next full moon hits." Adam looked down.

"That's tomorrow night!" Both Ben and I exclaimed at the same time.


End file.
